A tighter reign

America's hedge fund industry took a psychological knock after 11 September 2001, when some commentators accused it of being unpatriotic by making money out of difficult times.

Since then, both the industry's good and bad points have increasingly come under the microscope for a variety of reasons.

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC), the US's market regulator, has been outspoken about the potential for hedge fund managers to act fraudulently and has focused on issues of transparency in hedg